As a person who has grown up around the noble animal that is the Horse, I fully understand how they feel and think. When they are cared and loved for, they will do anything for their owners. Their loyalty is admirable and this was displayed recently in Ibiza when a beautiful animal, was brought into Pacha at 4am in the morning, as a gimmick to promote the flagship David Guetta Fu#K Me I’m Famous party. The Horse called Bruno, belonged to Club Hípico Ibiza and was hired by the FMIF team to promote the event. Bruno was hired for 4 hours, and his owner went about training the horse to stand quiet inside the club, while flashing lights and loud music was pumped out. Zoo’s have cages to protect the animals from human interaction, inside Pacha, there was no barrier between the horse and hundreds of untrained clubbers. As an owner of horses myself, I know how they sense and pick up on energy and emotions that humans project. Call it a seventh sense if you will, but horses, like most animals are extremely sensitive to the environment around them. That’s why they like routine so much.
The publicity stunt immediately angered a number of horsemen and women on the island of Ibiza and they all condemned the morality of the action. They confirmed that legally, everything was in order, the horse was well trained and looked after, had earplugs inserted to protect him from the noise, was ridden by his owner and a vet was on hand if anything went wrong. They conceded that if this horse owner had turned down FMIF there would be others only to happy to take the money. While it may have sounded good in theory, in practice it was another matter. Issues of morality were raised as were online petitions to stop the use of the Horse inside the club. It was wrong, FMIF had crossed a line and they knew it. The Spanish love their Horses; the classical Lipizzaner and Andalusian are testament to the importance of the horse in their culture.
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| The Beautiful Lipizzaner. |
The blog now understands that FMIF have stopped using the horse inside the club which is positive and welcome news. In a press release Pacha stated “The time the horse was inside the club lasted less than 5 mins during which it had a dozen security. It was a once off event for the residency opening and is no longer part of the show. We sincerely apologise as no offence was intended” While they do have to shoulder part of the blame, I personally believe that the owner should have know better as he was the guardian of the horses welfare. I doubt very much Guetta or Pacha know much about Horses and when they hired the animal they did not do it to offend – both are too shrewd as corporate entities to do it on purpose. The professional person with the power to say yes or no to the contract, was untimely the owner of Bruno. Nobody else could have ridden the horse inside the club and unlikely that Bruno would have stood so loyal for anybody other than his master. Luckily common sense prevailed at the end of the day and Bruno is now relaxing quietly at his stables in San Antonio. I get the impression that certain people will be wary of bringing Trojan Horses inside their walls in future.